Ken Johnson had written at least 10 books and published thousands of newspapers, but there was one tome that eluded him for years.
It was a bucket list book about Walter and Preston Walker, former owners and publishers of The Daily Sentinel.
“Their fingerprints are on everything that is decent in Grand Junction. They just loved their town. They never got rich. They plowed money back into the Sentinel and into the town to make things happen,” Johnson said. “I can’t name anybody else who has done that. It’s just amazing, and they were proud to do it.”
With 11 file boxes filled with copies of The Daily Sentinel and an assortment of papers that had belonged to the Walkers, Johnson finally sat himself down to write in February. By May, the 23 chapters he wrote along with co-author Carol Sullivan and several other contributors were prepared for layout.
“Publishers: Walter & Preston Walker” is now ready for readers. Johnson, who was the publisher of The Daily Sentinel from 1970–1979, will sign copies of “Publishers” at 11 a.m. Monday at The Daily Sentinel’s offices, 734 S. Seventh St. The book will be available for purchase at the Sentinel.
“Publishers” 369 pages contain a wealth of historical photos and stories along with Johnson’s research and personal perspectives.
“If you are interested in Grand Junction history, ‘Publishers’ is a fascinating lens through which to view it. The Walkers were literal titans of Grand Junction. I’m glad Ken decided to dig so deeply to tell their story,” said Jay Seaton, current publisher of the Sentinel. “The book is part serious history, part intimate reflection from a man who was close to the subjects.”
Johnson, 89, grew up in Grand Junction and started at The Daily Sentinel in 1945 as a 12-year-old paper carrier. He later worked in the mailroom, cleaned the composing room and worked weekends and summers taking care of Preston Walker’s yard.
Johnson said he was in awe of Walter Walker, who was the publisher from 1911 to 1956, purchasing the newspaper in 1917.
“I didn’t know him that well,” Johnson said. “He said hello to me one day. And I didn’t know how to say anything back.”
Johnson was far closer to Preston Walker, who was “Pres” to those who knew him. He was the Sentinel’s publisher until his death in 1970. “I was practically Pres Walker’s son,” Johnson said.
The younger Walker not only taught Johnson how to run rivers, he shared the newspaper industry with Johnson as he began writing and editing. After Johnson graduated from the University of Colorado with a business degree, he became the Sentinel’s bureau chief in Rifle.
Johnson continued at the Sentinel, eventually working his way up to general manager before succeeding Preston Walker as publisher and owner in 1970.
Johnson sold the Sentinel to Cox Newspapers in 1979 — the newspaper was purchased by Seaton Publishing Co. in 2009 — and he has had multiple careers and hobbies through the years, but his ties to Grand Junction remain strong and he lives in the valley part-time.
It was shortly after the 2008 unveiling of the Legends of the Grand Valley’s sculpture of Walter and Preston Walker on Main Street — Johnson was a member of the Legends committee — that he and Sullivan first discussed a book about the Walkers.
“They’re just disappearing,” Johnson recalled telling Sullivan, a former Sentinel reporter.
It was a sentiment that in part drove his writing earlier this year, and examples of this “disappearing” can be seen in the Walker name being replaced around town, he said.
The Walker name used to grace a fine arts building at Mesa College. Walker Field airport has become Grand Junction Regional Airport. The Colorado Mesa University soccer field that was Walker Field, a name supported by the Johnson family, is now Community Hospital Unity Field, Johnson noted in his book.
The Walkers’ contributions, such as their political leadership and writings, Walter Walker’s time as a U.S. senator and his role in bringing a Rotary International charter to the city, and their support for aviation, education, the arts and more in Grand Junction, are being lost to memory, Johnson said.
And when they are remembered, they unfortunately are overshadowed by Walter Walker’s ties to the Ku Klux Klan, Johnson said.
The nature of those ties is based in lies, he said, and was another significant reason he wrote “Publishers.”
“My goal is really simple, and I hope that by that chapter (chapter 18) people will read it and understand that Walter Walker was unblemished and he gets the credit for driving the klan out of town,” Johnson said.
In chapter 18, titled “Al Look,” Johnson wrote about Alfred Look, who worked at the Sentinel for 36 years, many of them for the Walkers. He retired as advertising manager in 1960.
Johnson’s chapter narrows in on a phone call he said Look received in 1975 from a doctoral student named Robert Goldberg. Goldberg was researching the klan in the 1920s and knew Look had been a member.
During that phone call, Look gave false information about Walter Walker, Johnson said. It was information later published in Goldberg’s 1981 book “Hooded Empire.”
“The lie is three parts,” Johnson said.
First, Look claimed Walter Walker brought the klan to town.
Johnson maintains in his book that Walter Walker, an “ironclad Democrat,” did not. “It’s a joke,” he said.
Second, Look claimed Walter Walker was only shaken up by a deputy sheriff and klan member for the Sentinel’s attacks on the klan.
But there are reports and accounts that offer proof Walter Walker was badly beaten up by the deputy sheriff, Johnson said.
And third, Look claimed Preston Walker simply had a bicycle accident two weeks after the incident involving his father.
The truth of it was that 13-year-old Preston Walker also was beaten, but the incident didn’t get the coverage in the Sentinel as his father’s had, Johnson said.
“The police asked — (the police) were starting to reform and get out of the klan — just play this down. We don’t want to stir up something where the klan retaliates on a lot of people,” Johnson said.
So the incident with Preston Walker was downplayed even though he had memory loss related to a bad concussion and lifelong damage to one of his eyes, Johnson said.
When looking at Walter Walkers’ historical record “there was not a single blemish on him or the Sentinel or anything he did except for Al Look’s lie,” Johnson said. “I cannot figure out why (Look) did this. It just doesn’t make sense, but he did it. And it has carried forward.”
It also has led to overlooking Walter Walker’s writings and positions in the Sentinel against the klan that in large part led to it being pushed out of Grand Junction, he said.
“It’s extremely important because there are still some historians who have bought into Goldberg’s lie and Al Look’s lie that Walker is responsible for the klan,” Johnson said. “Honest to God, getting this black blotch off the Walker history has become a maddening thing.”
“Publishers” is about sharing who Walter and Preston Walker really were and the impact they had in shaping Grand Junction.
“I’m hopeful that this book will have a big audience in Grand Junction,” Johnson said.
